ABSTRACT
The book begins with a story highlighting the importance of a phenomenological, experience near assessment of those with whom we work. It then shifts to a presentation of a developmental/psychodynamic framework for understanding both positive and negative domains within the umbrella construct of object relations, the conscious and unconscious ways in which we experience aspects of the self and others, and object representations, the inner templates we derive as we make sense of the actual interpersonal relationships we have with significant others across the lifespan. The use of projective methods rises and falls in their heuristic value as a function of how well they understand and capture the nature and meaning of a given patient’s object world.
